iPhone 4 “antennagate” settlement checks arriving in the mail

Don't spend it all in one place.

iPhone 4's "antennagate" was sparked by users holding the device like so.

Chris Foresman / Ars Technica

iPhone 4 owners who filed claims over the so-called "antennagate" have begun receiving their settlement checks. Posts about the checks began popping up on Twitter in addition to sites like 9to5Mac, where several readers confirmed they had received their $15 payouts.

The iPhone 4 was released in July of 2010 and was immediately met with controversy over its "work of genius" antenna design. Unlike previous in iPhones, Apple had designed the iPhone 4 so the stainless steel bezel on the outside of the phone would act as antennas for Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and cellular. But a weak spot was discovered by users who bridged the gap between two antenna segments with their hand while using the device—when held like this, many users observed a drop in the cell signal, and some reported an increase in dropped calls.

Apple did not react well at first—at least from a PR standpoint. Then-CEO Steve Jobs responded to an e-mail from Ars in 2010 saying users should "just avoid holding it in this way." Then the company held a special event in Cupertino for the sole purpose of showing that competitors' devices had the same issue—an odd move for Apple, which typically doesn't offer public responses about product issues. The company later agreed to give free iPhone 4 bumpers (or an equivalent case from another manufacturer) to iPhone 4 owners, but it wasn't enough to quell the uproar, and a series of class action lawsuits followed.

Those cases were eventually rolled into one and settled in February of last year—nearly two iPhone introductions later. Affected users were encouraged to submit a claim for either another free iPhone 4 bumper or a $15 settlement check. Now, more than a year later, those checks are being sent out, as evidenced by the photos being posted online. Have any Ars readers received their $15 from Apple yet?

Yes, fantastic - A multi-year, multi-million dollar enrichment of lawyers over an issue that could have been solved with a 1/2" piece of electrical tape. Really, people don't have enough things to worry about.

Has there ever been a class-action lawsuit that actually benefited the consumer beyond double-digit (if not single-digit) rewards?

The last time I ever bothered to fill out something for a class action lawsuit was for a Nintendo price fixing scheme about 20 years ago. After I got my $5 coupon towards another game, I realized I had been duped twice. Once by Nintendo for fixing prices, the second by the lawyers who I just realized I made rich with zero benefit to myself.

With the $100M antenna facility that Apple, Inc. developed and used to design the iPhone 4 antenna, plus all of the real world testing, it is hard to see how they missed this issue.

iPhone 4 owners get $15 each, I wonder what the total litigation fees that were generated for the laywers amounted to?

Quote:

Plaintiffs separately request approval of an award of $5.9 million in attorneys’ fees, expenses and incentive fees for class representatives.The court approves an attorneys’ fees award of $2,163,292.50, the amount of plaintiffs’ counsel’s documented lodestar with no multiplier, along with $126,926.43 in expenses and a $500 incentive fee per class representative.

As of June 29, 2012, approximately 44,000 class members had filed claims for monetary recovery, 94 potential class members had opted out of the settlement, and 21 class members had filed objections.

In addition, the small number of opt-outs and objections (115 in total) relative to the size of the class (at least 15.7 million) supports approval. (See:http://www.classdefenseblog.com/files/2012/09/iPhone-4-final-approval-order.pdf )

So if all 15.7 million applied for the $15, it would total to $235,500,000; but as of June 2012 only 44,000 (0.0187234%) had applied for a payout of $660,000. Overall it appears that the vast majority of iPhone 4 customers were satisfied with their phones. The unknown is how many "bumpers" Apple gave to iPhone 4 owners and what it cost to give them the bumpers.

Has their ever been a class-action lawsuit that actually benefited the consumer beyond double-digit (if not single-digit) rewards?

The last time I ever bothered to fill out something for a class action lawsuit was for a Nintendo price fixing scheme about 20 years ago. After I got my $5 coupon towards another game, I realized I had been duped twice. Once by Nintendo for fixing prices, the second by the lawyers who I just realized I made rich with zero benefit to myself.

Lawyers have stated the point of the class action isn't so much to help consumers with direct monetary compensation, but to hurt the company. The best(and only real) way to get a companies attention it to hurt their pocketbook.

Of course this is said by lawyers as they run away screaming with their 6 figures payment.

Yes, fantastic - A multi-year, multi-million dollar enrichment of lawyers over an issue that could have been solved with a 1/2" piece of electrical tape. Really, people don't have enough things to worry about.

I agree about the electrical tape, however this is how the legal system works in the United States!

What system would replace the current system with or how would you modify the current system to make it more equitable?

That's almost half the amount required to register for that Mars mission (come reality TV gig.) I mention it, because surely people who cannot hold a phone more than one way, and/or are greedy enough to sue for restitution on account of such a minor inconvenience, are ideal candidates for representing the human race beyond the confines of this planet.

Has their ever been a class-action lawsuit that actually benefited the consumer beyond double-digit (if not single-digit) rewards?

The last time I ever bothered to fill out something for a class action lawsuit was for a Nintendo price fixing scheme about 20 years ago. After I got my $5 coupon towards another game, I realized I had been duped twice. Once by Nintendo for fixing prices, the second by the lawyers who I just realized I made rich with zero benefit to myself.

Lawyers have stated the point of the class action isn't so much to help consumers with direct monetary compensation, but to hurt the company. The best(and only real) way to get a companies attention it to hurt their pocketbook.

Of course this is said by lawyers as they run away screaming with their 6 figures payment.

I know we all like to rag on the lawyers, however, who besides these lawyers actually stand against these companies. The government won't get involved. Also, if these pesky lawyers loose the case, they don't get a dime, so I am not too worries about their 6 figure paychecks given the risk they take.

Yes, fantastic - A multi-year, multi-million dollar enrichment of lawyers over an issue that could have been solved with a 1/2" piece of electrical tape. Really, people don't have enough things to worry about.

Yep, after spending quite a nice chunk of coin on a high end smartphone (regardless of the company that made it (Samsung,Apple,HTC,Moto,Nokia etc)), and after spending a lot of time thinking of which phone's looks the best to me and suits me the most... I would love to sully the look with electrical tape.In fact perhaps the next phones should ship with small pieces of electrical tape right in the boxes so we can fix the problems when we are "holding it wrong".

2. If you hold your hand over an antenna the VSWR will be degraded and the efficiency of the antenna at its tuned frequency will be decreased. Therefore the signal level from the antenna into the front end of the receiver will be less and perhaps will not be able to be compensated by any AGC built into the receiver resulting in decrease in received signal strength and dropped calls. If Apple would have put some kind of RF transparent coating over the antenna gap this class action may have never existed. Perhaps any proposed coating was deemed aesthetically unpleasant?

3. What are the theological doctrines of "fandroidism"?

4. Not sure if any Apple media double standard exists. It is interesting how bearish wall street (purposefully in lower case) and the "financial analysts" have become toward the common stock of Apple, Inc. The proof is in the numbers and we will find out today if this bearishness is justified in the short term.

With the $100M antenna facility that Apple, Inc. developed and used to design the iPhone 4 antenna, plus all of the real world testing, it is hard to see how they missed this issue.

They missed it because in their paranoia to keep the design of the iphone 4 secret they placed them into cases that made them look like iphone 3's, these cases stopped the users hands from directly touching the antenna which significantly reduced the effect. Since about 80% of the iphone users I know have a case on their phone for protection they have similar real world performance to the testing done by Apple but those who use the product as provided by the manufacturer have a significantly worse experience.

I agree about the electrical tape, however this is how the legal system works in the United States!

What system would replace the current system with or how would you modify the current system to make it more equitable?

I kind of like the old fashioned system, where if a company makes products people don't like, they stop buying them. Apple has a 14 day return policy for most items; for iPhones, it's 30 days. For something used daily like a phone, I'd expect a serious flaw would be noted in that time. Take it back and get something else. Don't buy an Apple product next time. They'll get the message.

IMHO, it's more like "Waah! I really like this phone, and really don't want anything else; but it's not perfect, so appease me!" Now, there ARE cases where a class action is warranted; but this isn't one of them.

Yes, fantastic - A multi-year, multi-million dollar enrichment of lawyers over an issue that could have been solved with a 1/2" piece of electrical tape. Really, people don't have enough things to worry about.

This comment is pretty arrogant. Sorry.

You'd think it it was SUCH a minor issue, that maybe Apple would have done the stand-up thing and just taken care of it, right? But your solution instead is that I'm supposed to just slap "a little electrical tape" on a device that I bought for its "aesthetics" and because of its "meticulous design". I mean, aren't these SUPPOSED to be Apple's strengths?

So, I'm supposed to just sit back and participate in the multi-year, multi-million dollar enrichment of the executives at Apple instead. Right? >:(

Yes, fantastic - A multi-year, multi-million dollar enrichment of lawyers over an issue that could have been solved with a 1/2" piece of electrical tape. Really, people don't have enough things to worry about.

I agree about the electrical tape, however this is how the legal system works in the United States!

What system would replace the current system with or how would you modify the current system to make it more equitable?

WAIT....... so I'm supposed to just suck it up while the company just walks away unaccountable? Oh right, this is America. How dare we expect a company to admit to to a flaw or a problem and offer a solution. We're sheep and we're just here to enrich these corporations, right? -_-

Next time you fall for any type of scam or buy something that doesn't work as advertised, regardless of how much you paid for it, remember your statement here. Just think about it at least.

As for the article.......

Quote:

which typically doesn't offer public responses about product issues

.....Because that's a sure and ready sign of a company that's dedicated to its customers. *rolls eyes*

With the $100M antenna facility that Apple, Inc. developed and used to design the iPhone 4 antenna, plus all of the real world testing, it is hard to see how they missed this issue.

Allow me to hazard a guess.

When the issue first hit the news, I looked at how I was (naturally) holding my phone. Thumb on left side; index finger on back (to press against my ear); middle+ring fingers—maybe, my pinkie, too—on the right. Then, I tried holding it as I'd seen on some website, not unlike the right-hand photo here. My hand got in the way of holding it close to my cheek/ear. It'd be a better position for preventing somebody from tugging it out of my mitt but worse for using as a phone, especially for hearing in noisy environs.

Since my way of holding the phone suits me better, and seems objectively better based on simple physics (you want the earpiece & microphone close), avoiding antenna issues by keeping your hand as far away as possible seems a free side effect. (Yes, I've designed and tuned antennas & operated various radio transmitters. Nobody intentionally smothers an antenna with conductive material.) So did they test it when it was wrapped that way? Why would they?

So antennagate seemed totally cooked up, an intention to misuse the product in order to make a point quite independent of the physics. But Jobs was his imperious worst, user-hostile in telling people they were holding it “wrong.” A simple and humorous campaign of “here's how to make a phone not work so well, if that's your goal” could've totally defused the critics who demanded blood because they'd discovered a way in which it wasn't as magical as Apple wanted us to believe.

I was working for a carrier when "Antennagate" occurred and the increase in the number of iPhones being returned because of this issue was about 1%. The total returns for the iPhone 4 was smaller than all of the other devices in the carriers portfolio - and this included the 3GS.

I've no doubt that there was an issue with the way the antenna was designed, but the return rates suggested that either people were happy putting up with the issue - or it was made out to be much worse than it really was.

That issue was unique to the iPhone 4, and Apple did its best to obscure the distinction with its PR follow-up. I loved my iPhone 4 and this was never a major issue for me; but I'm glad Apple took a hit here precisely because of how it chose to muddy the issue.

So, I'm supposed to just sit back and participate in the multi-year, multi-million dollar enrichment of the executives at Apple instead. Right? >:(

Bullsh*t.

If I read your posting history rightly, there's not much chance of it. Seems like you prefer to enrich some OTHER firm's CEO(s). Possibly, a CEO whose package is totally opaque because he is part of a family that also owns a huge conglomerate controlled by one family.

Your privilege, of course. But why the bile against a company you apparently don't choose to work with?

Has there ever been a class-action lawsuit that actually benefited the consumer beyond double-digit (if not single-digit) rewards?

The last time I ever bothered to fill out something for a class action lawsuit was for a Nintendo price fixing scheme about 20 years ago. After I got my $5 coupon towards another game, I realized I had been duped twice. Once by Nintendo for fixing prices, the second by the lawyers who I just realized I made rich with zero benefit to myself.

Edit: typo

Actually, yes. I got a $7,000 check from Prudential for misrepresenting whole life insurance as a retirement plan with promised monthly payouts that would have never happened. That was pretty much what I paid them over the life of the policy. And I could have gotten more, but they screwed me in the timing of their announcement and having already signed an agreement before the announcement.

Has there ever been a class-action lawsuit that actually benefited the consumer beyond double-digit (if not single-digit) rewards?

The last time I ever bothered to fill out something for a class action lawsuit was for a Nintendo price fixing scheme about 20 years ago. After I got my $5 coupon towards another game, I realized I had been duped twice. Once by Nintendo for fixing prices, the second by the lawyers who I just realized I made rich with zero benefit to myself.

Edit: typo

Yep, Veterans in Canada successfully sued the government for illegal pension clawbacks and will be getting most of it. The lawyers are getting around 30 million I think.

Has there ever been a class-action lawsuit that actually benefited the consumer beyond double-digit (if not single-digit) rewards?

The last time I ever bothered to fill out something for a class action lawsuit was for a Nintendo price fixing scheme about 20 years ago. After I got my $5 coupon towards another game, I realized I had been duped twice. Once by Nintendo for fixing prices, the second by the lawyers who I just realized I made rich with zero benefit to myself.

Edit: typo

While not the norm, my mother received a check in the mail for $3000 from a class action suit this morning. The case involved the bank refusing to approve the sale of her home during the 2008 mortgage clusterfuck. She had found a buyer, two in fact, who were willing to buy the home for less than she owed on the house, but the bank felt they would make more money by repossessing the house instead. That said, given the damage to her credit as a result of their refusal, they arguably cost her a great deal more than $3000.

With the $100M antenna facility that Apple, Inc. developed and used to design the iPhone 4 antenna, plus all of the real world testing, it is hard to see how they missed this issue.

They missed it because in their paranoia to keep the design of the iphone 4 secret they placed them into cases that made them look like iphone 3's, these cases stopped the users hands from directly touching the antenna which significantly reduced the effect. Since about 80% of the iphone users I know have a case on their phone for protection they have similar real world performance to the testing done by Apple but those who use the product as provided by the manufacturer have a significantly worse experience.

You'd think it it was SUCH a minor issue, that maybe Apple would have done the stand-up thing and just taken care of it, right? But your solution instead is that I'm supposed to just slap "a little electrical tape" on a device that I bought for its "aesthetics" and because of its "meticulous design". I mean, aren't these SUPPOSED to be Apple's strengths?

Actually, they did take care of it. Read my other post; they took back phones, as necessary, gave out free cases, gave tips on proper operation, etc. Clue for you - I've sold consumer products for perhaps 40 years; cars, cameras, computers, you name it. Not one single item was perfect. Every product on earth more complex than a drinking cup will give you undesired quirks when used a certain way. I could give you actual examples until this page won't scroll anymore; ALL of which were more serious than "antennagate" and NONE of which resulted in class action suits.

Yes, fantastic - A multi-year, multi-million dollar enrichment of lawyers over an issue that could have been solved with a 1/2" piece of electrical tape. Really, people don't have enough things to worry about.

This comment is pretty arrogant. Sorry.

You'd think it it was SUCH a minor issue, that maybe Apple would have done the stand-up thing and just taken care of it, right? But your solution instead is that I'm supposed to just slap "a little electrical tape" on a device that I bought for its "aesthetics" and because of its "meticulous design". I mean, aren't these SUPPOSED to be Apple's strengths?

So, I'm supposed to just sit back and participate in the multi-year, multi-million dollar enrichment of the executives at Apple instead. Right? >:(

Yes, fantastic - A multi-year, multi-million dollar enrichment of lawyers over an issue that could have been solved with a 1/2" piece of electrical tape. Really, people don't have enough things to worry about.

I agree about the electrical tape, however this is how the legal system works in the United States!

What system would replace the current system with or how would you modify the current system to make it more equitable?

WAIT....... so I'm supposed to just suck it up while the company just walks away unaccountable? Oh right, this is America. How dare we expect a company to admit to to a flaw or a problem and offer a solution. We're sheep and we're just here to enrich these corporations, right? -_-

Next time you fall for any type of scam or buy something that doesn't work as advertised, regardless of how much you paid for it, remember your statement here. Just think about it at least.

As for the article.......

Quote:

which typically doesn't offer public responses about product issues

.....Because that's a sure and ready sign of a company that's dedicated to its customers. *rolls eyes*

Your comments make no sense. Apple, Inc. was sued in a Class Action and the Class won - how is that holding Apple, Inc. "unaccountable"? Apple, Inc. finally admitted the issue and resolved it by providing free "bumpers" to iPhone 4 users. Apple, Inc. also has a return policy so people who bought the iPhone 4 and were then made aware of the issue could return the phone set, which most likely some did.

Is Apple, Inc. perfect - NO! But evidence shows they do care about their customers and generally try to make things right. You can spend your money where you want. If the products that Apple, Inc. offer do not meet your needs thankfully there is plenty of competitors that have offerings on which you can spend said money.

Personally one area where I think the secretiveness of Apple, Inc. does a disservice to its customers is not having a roadmap for their Pro-level hardware and software offerings. Pros need to have that roadmap so they can plan capital expenditures. Mr. Tim Cook has promised the new Mac Pro will basically be a compelling offering, but we will see when (and if) it is announced later this year.

A software roadmap would help Pros figure out if they should stay with the software Apple, Inc. offers or move on to a competitors. Plus it would give some indication that Apple, Inc. plans to continue development on the software. With things like the discontinuation of Shake, although some of the functionality was rolled into other products, Pros can get nervous. I would like to see how Apple plans to address the features in the newly released ProTools 11 in an updated Logic (X?). Will Apple completely rewrite Logic in 64-bit as they did with Final Cut Pro X and what features do they plan to bring to the next version of Logic? Do not misunderstand Logic 9 is a very fine and mature product, but it could be improved and it would be nice to have a roadmap as to when the next version will be released and what new and improved features it will incorporate.

So if all 15.7 million applied for the $15, it would total to $235,500,000; but as of June 2012 only 44,000 (0.0187234%) had applied for a payout of $660,000. Overall it appears that the vast majority of iPhone 4 customers were satisfied with their phones. The unknown is how many "bumpers" Apple gave to iPhone 4 owners and what it cost to give them the bumpers.

The real question is this: How many of the remaining class members thought that it would take 2 years, and receive a coupon for $1.55 off of an iPhone 6, and didn't bother to sign up, like almost ANY class action lawsuit.

Keep in mind that since Apple had to pay for this lawsuit, the next iPhone will be $1.50 more, since no company on Earth will absorb that cost without passing most, if not all, to the consumer.

Lawyers have stated the point of the class action isn't so much to help consumers with direct monetary compensation, but to hurt the company. The best(and only real) way to get a companies attention it to hurt their pocketbook.

Of course this is said by lawyers as they run away screaming with their 6 figures payment.

I'm pretty sure the press, blogs, forums, and word of mouth did plenty to hurt Apple. They reluctantly acknowledged the problem, "paid out" people with cases, got rid of the guy responsible, and changed things around for next time.

The class action lawsuit on top of this was simply to get lawyers some money. If there's any "hurt" or "lesson" that the CAL was supposed to take care of, it was long taken care of by everyone else before this case ever went forward.

Mostly it involves the overuse of clichés like "fandroidism" and tireless parroting of "words" constructed with "-tard". The adherents to this belief system tend to operate under the gross misperception that liberal application of these words and phrases imparts a level of creativity unattainable by outsiders of their clique.

It would be a major improvement if they'd accept the fact that the vast majority of people simply find it to be obnoxious . . .

… It is interesting how bearish wall street (purposefully in lower case) and the "financial analysts" have become toward the common stock of Apple, Inc. The proof is in the numbers and we will find out today if this bearishness is justified in the short term.

The day before Apple introduced the iPhone4 (24 June 2010), its shares traded around $291.

Versus about $406 this morning, neatly 50% higher.

It's smart to question how much wisdom is in stock prices. Bt by your flawed-as-noted measure, Apple's 50% more the success than before the fiasco was called out. Might have to do with the sort of perceptions noted above, along the lines that AntennaGate was a hit piece, violating many people's sense of basic fairness.

I *DO* know a few people who took the bumpers, with a “why not?” attitude that didn't extend to the notion of paying lawyers to force Apple to cough up a few coins.

… It is interesting how bearish wall street (purposefully in lower case) and the "financial analysts" have become toward the common stock of Apple, Inc. The proof is in the numbers and we will find out today if this bearishness is justified in the short term.

The day before Apple introduced the iPhone4 (24 June 2010), its shares traded around $291.

Versus about $406 this morning, neatly 50% higher.

It's smart to question how much wisdom is in stock prices. Bt by your flawed-as-noted measure, Apple's 50% more the success than before the fiasco was called out. Might have to do with the sort of perceptions noted above, along the lines that AntennaGate was a hit piece, violating many people's sense of basic fairness.

I *DO* know a few people who took the bumpers, with a “why not?” attitude that didn't extend to the notion of paying lawyers to force Apple to cough up a few coins.

Yes but what about the facts below regarding the iPad. Do you not think that some of the reason for the stock price of Apple, Inc. was due to the iPad? Your analysis appears to be incomplete!

Quote:

The device was announced and unveiled on January 27, 2010 at a media conference. On April 3, 2010, the Wi-Fi variant of the device was released in the United States, followed by the release of the Wi-Fi + Cellular variant on April 30. On May 28, it was released in Australia, Canada, France, Japan, Italy, Germany, Spain, Switzerland and the United Kingdom. ( See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IPad_(1st_generation) )

Whether the "Antennagate" story was a hit piece or not there was an issue with the iPhone 4 and the resolution was ultimately extracted out of Apple, Inc.

Finally what does "fairness" have to do with the issue? This is real life, with grown up people that make use of the laws of the land to their support their positions pressing the basis of their arguments on to winning. Did someone say "winning", hold on Charlie just... ;-)

This whole issue is lame. Obviously, Apple modified the 4S (by adding a gap in another place less likely to have a user's hand block it, to serve the same purpose) which was released less than a year after the original.

Why not just admit they made a mistake and offer to replace the crybabies phones once 4S launched?

The fact that people whine and bitch over an issue that could arguably be considered user error and then sue, rather than going for the rational and reasonable solution of "hit me back next time around" just goes to show you where our priorities lie as humans: we're all selfish little babies when it comes to our shiny toys.